Category Archive

MGEX reached its highest open interest total of all-time yesterday, closing the day at 91,935 and surpassing the previous record by more than 1,300. It is the best open interest total in the 135 year history of the Designated Contract Market (DCM) and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO). Each day of the last two weeks has been a top three day, …

U.S. Senators Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., introduced bipartisan legislation to protect farmers and ranchers from a reinterpretation of a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The regulation currently allows sufficient time to send payments to their Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) and will repeal a requirement that impedes international data sharing. “As the Senate Agriculture Committee works to reauthorize the …

USDA is pondering the future of crop report release times in light of movement toward 24-hour trading. USDA is reviewing release times for several major statistical reports due to recent changes in market hours by major commodity exchanges. The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and the World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB), the USDA entities responsible for the reports, will seek …

Implementing legislation aimed a reforming Wall Street could have an impact on farmer cooperatives. As the Commodities Futures Trading Corporation (CFTC) implements provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act involving over the counter (OTC) derivatives, the Commission must ensure that farmer co-ops can continue to effectively manage risk and offer hedging tools to their farmer-owners, a representative of the National Council of …

AgWired coverage of the 2009 Farm Progress Show is sponsored by: and BASF at Farm Progress Show Photo Album New dynamics are shaping the future for agriculture and farmers need to be watching the markets more closely than ever before to keep ahead of the game, according to market analyst Arlen Suderman with Farm Futures. “There’s a lot of money …

After a long history of futures and options open outcry trading, the Minneapolis Grain Exchange is closing its trading pits effective December 19, 2008. The decision to make the transition to exclusively electronic trading was unanimously approved by the MGEX Board of Directors and is pending MGEX ownership approval. According to a MGEX release, the decision comes after an exhaustive …